Memoirs of a Marching Jaguar: Sophomore Year
by featherbrained-flute
Summary: My sophomore band memories told through the Dieci Gardens gang. Many one-shot humor chapters with no discernable plotline. Laugh at my misadventures. Rated for language and innuedos.
1. Section Shirts

**The Strange, Strange Sections of Dieci Gardens (DISCLAIMER: I do not own Swan Lake or Final Fantasy and its characters and weapons.)**

Zephyr was back at Dieci Gardens High School for her second marching season, and she was quite excited. Not much about the show (Swan Lake) or the slides (she shuddered at the thought), but reuniting with her friends after a long summer and meeting the new freshmen.

Currently, they were reviewing basics and perfecting them, for it was a State year, and the marching band had an opportunity to compete at the state level against the best of the best 4A schools. The drill instructors this year (Kalie Silvermead, Juliana Xu, and Erica Parker) were going over proper instrument carriage.

"You see," explained Kalie, "your flute should be perfectly parallel to the ground and your arms should not tough your body. It's like they have floaties on them."

"Wait, are we talking about those inflatable things on our arms when we went swimming as kids?" asked Juliana.

"Yes, Ju-Ju. Floaties."

"I always called them water wings."

"No, they're floaties."

"_No,_ they're water wings."

The argument lasted for about five minutes, and the inside joke was so popular, it became the flute section shirt.

* * *

Max Norris, a senior euphonium, was playing Final Fantasy while lamenting the director's choice of field show. Suddenly, staring at his television screen, he had an idea.

He brought the picture of his idea to Victoria Tramel and Charlie Daily, two other members of the euphonium section. "I have the perfect idea for our section shirt!" he proudly announced.

"Well, let's see it," sighed Victoria.

Max revealed his drawing: a badly-drawn swan with Cloud Strife's blond, pointy hairdo holding the Buster Sword, a sword of massive proportions used by Cloud. Below it was the caption "Euphoniums: Bustin' Up The Competition!" Victoria's eyes widened; she and the rest of the section (as well as some of the trombones) were avid fans of the Final Fantasy series.

Everyone in the euphonium section, as well as a French horn and a flute, ended up buying one.

* * *

The band, by this time in the season, had figured out which series of taps started which drum cadences, and so knew which dance to perform ahead of time. For Zephyr, the start of this particular drum cadence told her to look at the trombone section at least once.

For this cadence, all of the trombones would place their bells on their head and rock back and forth with the rhythms. It was so entertaining to watch (at least, to the little flute player) that sometimes, she would forget to dance with her section to stare and chuckle at one of the weirdest sections in her band.

The next day, trombone section shirts were passed out. Curious as to what random trombone-superiority message was written all over it, she asked Scott Daily if she could see the shirt. On the front, there was the signature "DGHS Trombone Line" emblem, along with the definition of "talented." She flipped it around and exploded with giggles. A picture of a boy with the trombone bell on his head was printed on the back, accompanied with the caption "Talented like that."

The French horns managed to create a similar graphic for their section shirt, with the instrument screaming, "You're doing it wrong!"


	2. The Freshman Anomaly

**Charles Peter Daily (DISCLAIMER: I do not own Watchmen.)**

Catalena Celeborn prepared herself for playing the Dieci warm-up after months. As she put the horn to her face, a strange sight caught her eye. She lowered her mellophone and stared at a euphonium player (most likely a freshman) sitting down in a chair, holding his baritone in his arms and studying it, bewildered.

"Hey, what's up?" she greeted. "Anything wrong?"

The freshman looked up at her with confused eyes. "How do you hold this?" he innocently asked.

* * *

The grating sound of someone out of tune crashed into Mr. Radley's ears. He cut off the band and immediately identified the culprit: Charles Peter Daily, the sole freshman euphonium. He turned on the large tuner in the front of the room, pointed at the freshman, and commanded, "Play."

Charlie did so, and Mr. Radley ordered, "Sharp. Pull out the thickness of about two nickels."

Mr. Radley readied himself to direct, trusting Charlie to know his American currency and what he meant. He was proven wrong when Max Norris, the euphonium section leader, yelled out, "No no no! The _thickness, _not the _width!"_

* * *

This year, Zephyr, Desmond Milton (a sophomore trombone player), and Charlie were assigned the position of bus captain. Their duties involved loading instrument cases and hatboxes onto their bus for football games and contests. To avoid wasting time, they were allowed to miss the beginning of the group warm-up and leave before the end of the game. They were also under strict orders to never load or unload _anything_ with their uniform on, as the bottom of the bus was covered with dust, gravel, and what Charlie called "bus crap."

Zephyr and Desmond had already unloaded much of the bus's baggage and were waiting for Charlie to change out of his uniform and the football game to end. Getting slightly irritated, Desmond got onto the bus and shouted, "Geez Charlie, how long does it take you to change?!"

"I'm a freshman!" he shouted back.

Zephyr later suggested that Desmond helped him change next time, to which he reacted negatively to.

* * *

Over the course of several months, this particular freshman had warmed up to many brass players, including Chase, a sophomore mellophone, and Catalena. Through those two, Zephyr had also gotten to know the extraordinary fish.

"CHARLIE!" Catalena screamed one day. "COME HERE!"

"But I don't wanna …" he whined. Amusingly, he padded over to the French horn player anyway.

"Good fishie," congratulated Catalena. She paused to think for a minute, then declared, "Ya know what? You shouldn't be a fish anymore. How about … ya be a freshmore?"

"A what?"

"A freshmore! 'Cause you're too cool to be a fish!"

"Um … okay ..."

* * *

In response to the upcoming Region band tryout, Mr. Radley drilled the second band with scales every day. He figured that the upperclassmen already knew and were practicing their scales. The freshmen, however, he was skeptical about. Plus, he just loved to tease them. Each day, he made seven freshmen play the seven required major scales (C, F, B-flat, E-flat, A-flat, G-flat, and G) solo. Today, Charlie was "volentold" to play the B-flat scale.

He started the scale just fine. However, it became evident that he had not memorized the two octave scale, nor did he know which notes to hit. As soon as he passed the first octave, he began improvising rhythms madly in an attempt to cover his search for the right notes. The amusing cacophony continued until Charlie paused, pulled the horn away from his face, and muttered, "Wait, what?"

The band laughed heartily, and several members applauded. Mr. Radley, however, was unimpressed. "Creative," he commented, "but wrong."

* * *

It was a few days after Charlie's "scale of fail," and sectionals were starting up. Mr. Radley insisted on everyone playing and memorizing their scales, which was bad news to Charlie.

Max had become one of the fish's best friends, and he messed with him often. "You know," he commented to Charlie, "I love that one part in our song where it goes …" He proceeded to hum the G-flat scale one octave.

Charlie frowned. "… oh, yes, I love that part," he said sarcastically.

"And if you're really talented, you can play it …" Max hummed, or attempted to hum, the G-flat scale two octaves.

"I might have to learn that before sectionals today," admitted the freshman.

"Don't forget the B scale!" the senior reminded him.

Charlie sighed in frustration. "Oh, great."

* * *

In anticipation for the upcoming movie, Max had let Charlie borrow his copy of Watchmen. The freshman had gotten hooked instantly, and (overnight, it seemed to Zephyr) became Rorschach's number one fan. He quoted the graphic novel whenever the situation called for it, and sometimes spoke in Rorschach's growly voice from the trailers.

Following a somewhat boring after-school rehearsal on stage in the performing arts center (also known as the PAC), Zephyr walked into the band hall to see Max donning a well-made Rorschach costume – trench coat, mask, and everything. "Charlie's gonna flip when he sees that," she predicted.

As soon as Charlie set foot in the band hall, he sprinted towards Max, screaming, "RORSCHACH! RORSCHACH! RORSCHACH!!" He stopped a foot in front of his section leader, spread out his arms, and squealed, "HUG ME, RORSCHACH!" Max stared at him for a while before mock-punching his jaw.

Charlie stood there for approximately three seconds before jumping up and declaring, "I GOT PUNCHED BY RORSCHACH!!"

* * *

"Hey Scott! You know that mole I had on my neck? And the one on my stomach?" Charlie called. His brother, Scott Daily, shook his head.

"Well, you won't miss them then," the freshman announced proudly. As soon as he processed it, Scott was horrified.

"What did you _do?!" _the junior trombone demanded.

"I got bored and they were bothering me, so I cut them off with a nail clipper."

Scott stared at his little brother with incredulity in his gaze.

"You know, it really didn't hurt that much. Only a little," Charlie continued. "And last I checked, they weren't bleeding that much."

"A _nail clipper?!?!" _exploded Scott. "What is _wrong _with you, child?!"


	3. Alternate Marchers

**But Panicking is Fun!**

"This sucks!" Roger Zalusky, a freshman and one of the only male flutes, cursed under his breath.

"What does?" inquired Zephyr.

"I'm a _football _marcher!" he huffed. In the Dieci band, football marchers, or alternates, only marched at football games because the director, although it would be possible, refused to give everyone a contest marching spot.

"But it's okay to be a football marcher! Heck, I was one for a while last year," explained Zephyr, conveniently leaving out the fact that the upperclassman "battling" her for the spot was called to cover another one after one of the seniors quit. "You get to sit around at contests while we panic -"

"NO! I _want _to panic!" he affirmed.

She studied him, slightly taken aback. "Do you realize how weird that sounded?" she quietly asked.

"… yes" was his reply.


	4. Mr Oakley's Moments of Randomosity

**Man with a Mustache (DISCLAIMER: Do not own any stand tunes mentioned.)**

At Dieci football playoff games, instead of marching the field show, the band would perform the "Jaguar spell-out:" as the announcer named off corny adjectives in an acronym of "jaguars," the band members would form the letter. As soon as "jaguars" was spelled out, the band would play two or three stand tunes, then exit the field.

During summer band, Mr. Oakley, the saxophone-playing head band director, revealed to the band that, after many conversations with the football coaches, there would be a fairly good chance that the team would go to playoffs.

Clearly dissatisfied with the tradition, a clarinet player raised his hand and wondered, "Will they come up with stupid adjectives again?"

Mr. Oakley stared him down and curtly stated, _"I'm _the one who comes up with those adjectives."

"Oh," the clarinet player breathed while the rest of the band laughed.

As an effort to apologize and swallow his own words, the clarinet player sheepishly said, "… they're great adjectives."

* * *

The woodwinds were in the middle of their mass sectional before summer marching rehearsal. Having finished looking at the show's movements for the day, they had moved on to playing through (and for the freshmen, sight-reading) stand tunes. Today, the song was "Crazy Train." Zephyr, being the band geek she was, knew this tune back and forth, even without the brass there.

As she played a rare whole note, she listened for the low reeds' entrance. Mr. Oakley cut off the high woodwinds, and the low reeds' soli became nonexistent. Amid quiet chatter and chuckles, the head band director sarcastically asked, "What's your excuse this time?"

The section leader, a bari sax named Tom O'Malley, spoke for the section. "We thought you were stopping."

"Oh," replied Mr. Oakley. "Well, I was signaling a release for the flutes and clarinets. I understand. You were just trying to do what you were supposed to do. … You're wrong."

* * *

Mr. Oakley frowned and cut off the band. At Dieci, the trumpet stereotypes were reversed: Dieci trumpets were quiet, wimpy, and barely had an ego (at least, when it came to playing). And what was worse, everyone knew that the stand tune they were rehearsing was a typical brass-blast song.

"Trumpets, louder!" he commanded. "You are in the front for a reason. Freshmen, I know your directors in junior high told you to never play that loud. That just changed."

He raised his hands as freshmen shuddered and upperclassmen (knowing that they could not pull it off) rolled their eyes.

* * *

"I just love technology," Mr. Oakley muttered as he tried to get the image on the computer to show up on the band's plasma-screen television. After several minutes of tinkering and help from tech-savvy students, the drill for this year's show could be revealed.

The freeze frame currently on the screen showed the starting sets for the opener. "This section …" the head band director moused over four sets of straight lines, "is the flutes!"

The flute section cheered.

"And these …" The mouse circled large "L" shapes, "are the clarinets!"

The clarinets whooped.

The ritual continued and ended with Mr. Oakley announcing, "And last, we have the trombones!"

The trombone section, plus a few other people, loudly booed.

* * *

Much of this year's show involved perfectly straight lines, especially in the opener and the closer. Because this year was a State year, Mr. Oakley wanted these lines to be as straight as humanly possible. Unfortunately, it was often the same people being the same amount of space off.

Usually, a freshman and junior Bobby Bentz were off of their line during the closer. But today, the freshman had managed to fix his mistake, and even tried to correct the junior.

Mr. Oakley, seeing this, blantantly asked, "Did Bobby just get owned by a freshman?"

The band openly mocked the road crew member.


	5. Lost and Found

**Our Scatterbrained Nemesis (DISCLAIMER: I do not own any stand tunes mentioned.)**

Zephyr placed her duffel bag, uniform bag, and hatbox on the sidewalk and began opening the compartments under the bus for her bus captain duties. Normally, she was the first one to her bus, so she had some time to herself before the other bus captains and the loading rush. Today, this was not the case. A trombone freshman, Meg Shayla, had dropped her stuff off and sat on the curb, listening to her music.

The flute player reached for the trombone case to slide it under the bus, only to realize that there was an instrument in the middle of the compartment. Her eyes jumped back and forth between the trombone case in her hands and the dust-covered trombone case in the bus. _But there was no one else here … _she thought. _How did that …?_

Still confused, she set down Meg's case and pulled the foreign instrument off of the bus, dusting it off. She searched for a name tag, a school sticker – anything that could help find the owner. By this time, Meg had turned off her music player and curiously peered over Zephyr's shoulder.

"Maybe you should open it," she quietly suggested.

Setting it down on the concrete, the sophomore unclipped the latches and carefully opened the case. Still not anything that could hint at an identity, but wait: a flip folder. Zephyr grabbed it and studied the pages.

"Huh. Their school has nice songs," commented Meg. "Thriller, Jaws, Seven Nation – hey, we have that one! Crazy Train, Radar Love, Pacadino Fight Song, Hey Ba – wait, Pacadino Fight Song?!"

The flute player could barely believe her eyes – or the Pacadino trombone player's stupidity. In the last page of the flip folder was the second trombone part of their high school rival's fight song.

Swiftly, Meg removed the piece of music from the page and pocketed it. "He won't miss that," she chuckled. Zephyr snorted.

"Really, Meg? Really?"

"Mm yeah." The trombone player took the flip folder, tossed it back into the case, closed it, and proceeded to take it to Mr. Radley.


	6. Region Band Day

**Ben, Zephyr, and Charlie's Excellent Adventure**

Zephyr tried to relax by consuming random candy and laughing with her friends. Surely _that _wasn't the most horrifying or embarrassing moment in her flute-playing career. While in the audition room for the All-Region Band (which, in reality, was a chemistry room), she had become extremely nervous, always missing more than one note in all of her audition pieces and the scales. She had known that auditioning for the real thing was a step up from auditioning for the All-Region Freshman Band, but she had not expected all the best people in her district to be in the room with her. The flute player just wanted to forget her entire ordeal ever happened.

As results were posted, one by one, her friends began to leave. Zephyr, however, stayed to help tear down the various rooms in Dieci Gardens temporarily transformed into an audition room. Soon, Charlie Daily was the only person she was remotely close to. And even he had to leave: not making the regular region band, he opted to try out for the freshman band.

While wandering the halls, she spotted a peculiar sight: Benjamin Walker, a freshman trombone player. She knew him by face and name, but did not know him personally, although he had been assimilated into her "brass circle." Was he trying out for freshman band as well?

"Hey, Ben!" she called. "What'cha doing?"

"Mm? Oh! I'm here to clean up. And my mom's volunteering. Tried to stay in the band hall, but it got a little boring."

"Well, I'm lonely. I think I'll keep you company for a while."

The two wandered the halls for a while, casually conversing, before they ran into Mr. Ford, who was in charge of the region band tear-down. Grateful that two volunteers had already shown up, Mr. Ford wasted no time in assigning them four rooms to clean.

* * *

After stacking the band's chairs and stands, along with several blankets outside of the rooms for picking up, Zephyr suggested going back to Charlie's audition room, since the freshman had volunteered to clean up as well.

Spotting a lone desk in the hallway, Ben ran to claim it, Zephyr in pursuit. He slid into the seat, and she decided to sit on the actual desk. While the flute player was ignorant of the messages her actions were projecting, the trombone player was a little flustered at her choice of chair. He eventually figured that it was a normal Zephyr thing to do, like her urge to hug complete strangers as long as she knew their name, instrument, and they had given her permission.

Ben whipped out his phone and started a game of solitaire while maintaining a hushed conversation with the flute player. "Hey, that reminds me," she said. "Maybe I should turn my phone off silent." She reached into her pocket and took out her phone, which, to her surprise, was off.

"Or you know, just turn it on," chuckled Ben. Zephyr smiled and shook her head.

* * *

The deadline for Solo and Ensemble entries was fast approaching, and Zephyr was a little worried that her quartet hadn't selected a piece. She kept bothering several of its members, and on this region band audition day, one of them decided to call her while in the middle of her clean-up session.

"Hello?" she answered. "Oh, hi Lily! You found one yet?"

"Not yet," the other sophomore flute player sighed. "Anne's trying to look for one, though."

"That's good." At this point in their conversation, Ben and Charlie entered the room. Being freshmen and wanting to tease their small sophomore friend, they started yelling, "ZEPHYR! GET OFF THE PHONE! WE'VE GOT WORK TO DO!"

Frustrated, Zephyr tried to run away to a quieter place, but the two boys followed and Charlie even tried throwing a blanket on her head. The flute player was forced to quickly end the conversation and muttered under her breath, "You guys are _such _freshmen."

Almost as if to prove her point, Ben and Charlie initiated a stand-fight, which Zephyr promptly filmed on her camera phone.

* * *

The three underclassmen rushed to the elevator in the main commons after acquiring a chair and stand rack so they could pick up everything that was cleared out of rooms. Zephyr was still filming the entire escapade on her phone, and the playful banter being recorded on her phone was, coming from three people who had barely known each other that morning, a tad unexpected.

"Yeah, we're going to be in some horrible, random accident while we're cleaning up, Charlie," Ben sarcastically replied to Charlie's rambling about a new conspiracy theory he created.

"Uh-huh," added Zephyr. "And this will be the only record."

The elevator doors opened, leaving the three to wreak havoc on the second floor. As Zephyr and Ben prepared to make a mad dash towards their next room, Charlie blurted, "Wait, wait! I have an idea!"

"Okay, Zeph, can you, like, stand on the stand rack _and _the chair cart?" he asked.

"What?" she murmured. Still confused, she placed one foot on the stand rack and the other on the chair cart. To prevent the two wheeled objects from rolling away from each other, she held onto each cart with an arm, trying to pull them closer together. From Ben's point of view, it seemed as if she was trying to keep two boxcars together.

"Like that?" she wondered.

"Yeah. And Ben, try pulling on the stand rack," directed Charlie.

The trombone player did as commanded, and for a while, it looked like a funny-looking band geek train – Ben pulling the entire mechanism with the chair rack as the caboose, and Zephyr trying to hold the two vehicles together. However, the train collapsed, and the two operators fell down laughing.

"Okay, okay, maybe Zeph's too light for the middle," commented Charlie. "You know what, I'll take the middle, and Zeph, uh … you can hop onto the chair rack and keep filming this."

The band geek train was a success, and the trio was proud of their creative way of transport. However, when it came to sharp turns, there was always the danger of the haphazardly stacked chairs, stands, and blankets falling off. Nevertheless, they were laughing the entire day.

* * *

Charlie, spotting his mom, had quickly taken advantage of the situation and proceeded to put his euphonium in her car. Zephyr and Ben waited patiently for him at one of the doors; many of the school's doors were automatically locked from the outside, even on days where big events like region tryouts occurred. Ben ventured outside from time to time, and Zephyr studied the list of rooms they had left to tear down.

The flute player looked at her phone nervously. Fifteen minutes. Did putting a brass instrument in a car really take that long? "Hey Ben," she called. "I'll start on the next room. You try to find Charlie. Maybe he came in through some other entrance."

"Right then …" he gulped. Why was he nervous about asking her a simple question? _Zephyr, can I have your number? _In theory, it was not difficult.

"Maybe we should have each other's numbers. Might be easier later," she suggested. Ben sighed inwardly; at least he did not have to ask.

They switched numbers, and as Zephyr ran upstairs, she wondered if Ben could be more than a friend.

* * *

With more volunteers arriving, Mr. Ford left the ninth grade center to the trio while the others cleaned up the rest of the school and the performing arts center. Evidently, the rooms in the "fish" center were some of the last – instead of blankets draped over stands to act as a barrier between the musicians and the judges, there were giant sheets of butcher paper taped to stands. The boys enjoyed tearing them down.

"Okay, on three," called Charlie. "One, two … _three!"_ The freshmen jumped through the paper, hoping they would make a clear cut. All they accomplished was toppling over the structure; upon later inspection, there were insane amounts of tape holding it together.

Zephyr giggled. "Nice one, guy -" She froze and squeaked in terror as one of the falling stands narrowly missed a computer keyboard.

The three band members stared at the stand until Charlie said, "... that was Ben's fault."

"Was not!" the trombone player shot back. They playfully shoved each other and laughed.

"You two are _such _freshmen," commented Zephyr.

"Wait! Comfy chair!" Ben shouted as he sprinted to a leather reading chair in a corner of the room. The flautist and euphonium player rushed after him. Naturally, Ben slid his rump into the chair first. Zephyr hopped onto his lap, and before Ben could blush, Charlie jumped on top of them, warranting many derogatory comments about weight. He eventually settled for lying across their laps, his legs resting on the nearest desk.

Now visibly showing how tired they had become, the room was silent except for their breathing. A new feeling came over Zephyr as she glanced at the two boys who had become her best friends in seven hours. _I … I just bonded with two of the most amazing people I could meet, _she realized. Sure, it sounded a little corny in her head, but it was true.

* * *

The flautist rested her back against the brick wall as she waited for her ride in the parking lot. Even though she had not made region band, today was still considered one of the best days of her life. Her leg flinched as her phone vibrated. She fished her phone out of her pocket and was surprised to read "Ben Walker" on the caller ID. Puzzled, she flipped open her phone and answered, "Hello?"

"Get off the phone, Zephie." The trombone player approached her from around a corner and smirked.

Hanging up and smiling, she shortly said, "Shut up, Benny."


	7. The Quadrennial Out of State Trip

**Let the Invasion of Florida Begin! (DISCLAIMER: Do not own any franchises, colleges, etc. mentioned.) (NOTE: This chapter contains romantic, mushy scenes. Skip them if you wish.)**

Taking in a breath of evening air and gazing upon the several charter buses parked near the curb, Zephyr's heart beat faster than usual. Tonight, the Dieci band was leaving for Orlando to play at a bowl game and hang out at several theme parks in the area. It was winter break as well; the infamous Florida heat would not be a problem. Although the flute player could not exactly explain why, she had always loved traveling at night and in the early morning. And what excited her more, she was traveling with some of her best friends eighteen hours to "the happiest place on Earth."

She took her bags into the band hall, dropped them off in her brass circle's general area, picked up her uniform, and waited for company. Kayla Selmer and Catalena Celeborn were the first to arrive. These two borderline-insane sophomores, along with Leslie Selmer, the head drum major, were her roommates for the next four nights or so. As she imagined the chaos, she smirked.

Next came Charlie Daily and Desmond Milton, her two bus captain partners. Zephyr had to admit, Desmond was not very high on her list of preferred company, but listening to him was interesting.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Benjamin Walker pick up his uniform. The two hugged and greeted each other as if they had been friends for years instead of a few weeks. When she thought back, she found it funny to remember that she hadn't known his name, face, or instrument three months prior. She guessed what had really helped their friendship along was region band day and their almost non-stop texting since the holiday started.

Soon enough, Mr. Oakley ordered everyone to go load the buses and the adventure began.

* * *

As soon as Zephyr and Chase Bates, among several others, finished re-arranging everyone's luggage in the compartment under the bus so that none of it would fall or create a major problem, they boarded the vehicle and waited for last-minute preparations.

Zephyr and her group of friends were situated near the front. Zephyr sat next to Catalena, in front of them sat the Selmer sisters, behind them were Charlie and Ben, and across from the flautist and horn player were Chihiro Natsuki, sophomore trumpet player, and Ann Magnolia, freshman flute player.

The bus started moving, lights flickered off, and much of the band tried to go to sleep. Zephyr slipped into dreamland listening to Charlie and Ben's conversation about World of Warcraft.

* * *

A sudden jolt woke Zephyr from her slumber. She sighed and guessed that was one of the many setbacks of sleeping on a moving object.

Outside, the sun had not completely risen yet, and conditions were a little foggy. The sky was painted a steel blue with a plethora of dull clouds, and the roads were relatively empty and quiet. About half of the trees looked like they were dead, their sharp spindly claws scratching the air above them. The scene speeding past her window reminded her too much of Silent Hill – any moment now, birds would flap their wings and fly away desperately while everything inexplicably transformed into something dark, scary, and covered in blood.

"Hey."

The flute player turned around and smiled at the image of Ben's head resting in the space between her head restraint and the window. It seemed quite convenient that they had a conversation spot away from the rest of the sleeping band members. "Hey there," she answered.

"Couldn't sleep either?"

"No. Stupid bus woke me up. Um … can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. Don't see why not."

"Well …" Did she really want to say this? "I really like this guy, but ... he's kinda got a girlfriend. They seem really happy together and I don't want to ruin that. ... Then there's this other guy who I think I like, but maybe we'd be better off as friends. What do I do?"

Ben blinked and sighed, breaking eye contact. He was not prepared for a question like this. After several minutes of contemplation, he spoke. "If you really like the first guy, then try to go for it. Maybe you can wait until they break up. Or you can get together with the close friend and break it off when the girlfriend guy's single. I'd really just try to stay friends with the second guy for now."

She was crazy. She _did _want to do this. "Do you have any guesses as to who they might be?"

"Um. Are they band guys?"

"And freshmen."

In his mind, he narrowed down the candidates. Ben was surprised to notice that Zephyr was only friends with three male band fish. And one of them – Scott Dennis – was more qualified for "adorable house pet" than "boyfriend." But maybe she wasn't friends with the first one …

"I-I don't know who the first one is," he guessed, "but … is the close friend me?"

Her eyes darted away from his, and slowly, she nodded her head.

"Oh." Ben felt the blood rush to his face. "Then … who was the other guy?"

The flautist pointed at Charlie before whispering, "I'll try to get back to sleep now. Thanks." And with that, she turned around and closed her eyes.

Ben laid his back against the seat and reprocessed their conversation. Suddenly, it made sense that only Zephyr could evoke this strange emotion from him. The trombone player was glad that she was more direct than the rest of her section – he would have been too shy to take any actions.

* * *

The band stopping for meals was quite a sight. Usually, half of the buses went to one restaurant and the other half went to another one nearby to avoid swamping the workers. A second method was letting the band members choose from an area of fast food places while the buses sat in a nearby parking lot.

However, dinner on the way there was different. Mr. Oakley had called a larger restaurant in advance, so the entire band would be dining at a buffet-type restaurant. Luckily, Zephyr and her friends sprinted in, beating the rest of the large band.

As they sat down, Zephyr asked, "So, my fishies, how's your first band trip?"

"Mm," Charlie mumbled through his full mouth. "Trippin'."

"Pretty good," Ben answered while he tapped her foot under the table. In response, she kicked him softly, and the playful banter continued. By the end of dinner, Zephyr was sure that she had several new bruises on her leg.

Soon, her group finished dinner, and they wandered outside. They passed by the line to get in, and they were shocked that several members of the band had not even paid for their buffet yet.

"Makes me glad that we got here early," chuckled Catalena.

While waiting for the rest of their massive band to finish up dinner, they hung around outside. Several of the trumpets who had eaten began a game of ultimate Frisbee, which Zephyr figured was the official section sport.

* * *

Daydreaming and listening to her iPod, Zephyr stared out her window in an effort to keep her motion sickness at bay. Occasionally, she would glance back at the occupants of her bus: Kayla and Leslie were buried in their own conversation or watching a movie, Catalena was either reading or talking to Chihiro, Charlie listened to his own iPod while reading a graphic novel called _Watchmen, _and Ben watched Iron Man on the bus televisions. The flautist couldn't help but notice that his arm was resting between hers and Catalena's head restraints, leaving his hand next to hers.

She studied the moving trees and clouds, but found herself drawn to his hand. Did he want her to do something? Was this another answer to her earlier question? After several minutes of contemplation, she nudged his hand. Slowly, he took her hand in his and smiled at her.

* * *

Leslie collected the key cards for their room and signaled to her roommates to follow her into the hotel. To her surprise, the hotel did not seem to have staircases (it was later revealed that the stairs were only used in emergencies), leaving three elevators to transport the Dieci band and a band from Pennsylvania to their rooms.

The head drum major rolled her eyes and sighed; disorganization was slowly becoming a pet peeve of hers, and the massive blob of band members waiting for a free elevator made it worse. As the minutes ticked by, she felt her bags becoming heavier and heavier. She glanced at a nearby map and saw that there were six levels in the hotel, along with several large ballrooms and meeting rooms, and a random Starbucks. "One around every corner," she chuckled to herself.

Soon enough, the traffic slowed, and she was able to climb into an elevator. Once they had reached their room, the Selmer sisters claimed the bed closest to the window (the view was not spectacular; Leslie saw cars speeding along roads every day) and Zephyr and Catalena settled for the bed nearest the bathroom and entrance.

Reminding everyone that they had to wake up around five o'clock the next morning, Leslie turned out the lights and everyone closed their eyes and waited to slip into slumber land.

At least, for a while.

After chucking a pillow halfway across the room, Leslie screamed, "HORSE!"

In another room, a somewhat similar thing occurred, but with sophomore French horn Edward Raleigh yelling, "DHUT!"

* * *

Trying to ignore the rising Florida sun and the fact that she hadn't memorized the show tune (a medley of Santana songs), Zephyr took her spot in the high school stands along with many other flautists from all over the country and half-heartedly played through the mass band warm-up and run-throughs of the show tune.

As she was bumbling through most of the song, she glanced around at the odd instrumentation. One couldn't really deviate from the typical flutes and trumpets, but some schools apparently used concert euphoniums instead of baritones, and there were even modified tubas supported on one shoulder instead of sousaphones.

The head director cut off the band, and ordered the huge band into sectionals, pointing out which section practiced where. The flutes, luckily, were under the shade of trees and protected from the inevitable noon sun. After playing through the show tune (again and again and again …), the sectional director gave the flutes time to sit down and mingle with other schools.

Upon sitting down, one of the flautists from Pennsylvania complained, "It's too hot …"

Having lived through at least fourteen humid, 100-plus degrees summers, the eighty degrees and no humidity in Florida was nothing for the Texan Dieci band; they couldn't help but snicker.

* * *

Ben leaned forward and conversed with Zephyr through the space between her head restraint and the window. He was telling her some stories about his sister when he heard groans and cheers from the back of the bus. Curious, he and Zephyr turned around.

Two hangers had been placed on ridges on the overhead compartments. Every time the bus braked to a stop (which was quite often; the traffic leading to the stadium was terrible), the hangers would slide down towards the front. Ben rooted for the one on the left; unfortunately, it got caught on someone's bag and the hanger on the right won.

As a freshman, he was amazed at how easily this band was amused.

* * *

Zephyr and Ben continued their conversation in their hidden hollow while the rest of the band was not paying much attention. Charlie was reading _Watchmen_ and Catalena had draped her band hoodie over her head to blot out the sun while she caught up on sleep.

The flautist chuckled at a story the trombonist told, and an awkward silence quickly settled over the two. They gazed into each other's eyes, hearts pounding at an accelerated rate. Some part of Zephyr knew that they were probably moving too fast for her standards, the other part decided it did not care.

After a year of repairing her broken heart, the kiss was innocent and refreshing.

* * *

Seats for the bowl game were assigned at random; if one wanted to move closer to friends, someone had to switch spots. To their joy, Zephyr and Ben got seats next to each other and decided that they would get dinner from one of the many food stands under the stadium seats several minutes into the third quarter.

When the band was called down to get ready from the halftime show, almost an entire section of the stands disappeared and reappeared at the other end of the stadium, ready to march onto the field. Many people were amazed at the number of students wearing emerald green and navy blue uniforms, and eventually pulled a Dieci student over to ask where they were from. Every time, at least one person concluded, "Well, everything's bigger in Texas."

The high school kids were not told that there would be fireworks bursting in the sky during their performance. Band members who didn't bother to memorize the tune and didn't want to try watched the fireworks instead of the director. Others jumped a foot in the air and screamed when the first explosion illuminated the night sky.

Between the college marching bands, playing for thousands of people, and of course, the drunken football fans, Zephyr thought the bowl game was an interesting experience.

* * *

The bands decided to leave a little early to avoid being swamped by post-game traffic. There really was no reason to stay; unless Wisconsin could pull off a miracle, Florida State would claim the victory. On the bus, everyone discussed the events of the game with each other while Ben and Zephyr continued their conversation in their private space, with Charlie occasionally chiming in.

Charlie glanced out the window and smirked. "Hey, will you look at that?" he scoffed. The other two looked up and saw a man wobbling to and fro, obviously drunk. A woman, who they assumed was his wife, was laughing so hard, her face had turned a blotchy red. The man stumbled and almost fell, and another man, presumably a friend, caught him.

"Those drunk football fans," chuckled Ben. As if he had heard him, the drunken man turned to see three curious faces peering at him from behind bus windows. A huge, silly grin materialized on his face and he jumped for joy, apparently ecstatic that he had an audience. He started to dance clumsily as he caught the attention of more band members. All who saw him laughed … even Mr. Oakley.

"And that's why you stay away from alcohol," the band director stated.

* * *

Charlie and his Universal Studios group - Victoria, Max, and the rest of the euphoniums - approached The Hulk with great enthusiasm; the screams of terrified roller coaster riders only made them more excited.

As the chatter in his group began to subside, the freshman tilted his head back to study the tracks. "If I die on this," he said absentmindedly, "I'm going to be pissed."

The others could only laugh at their freshman's randomosity.

* * *

As a group of band members boarded the Dueling Dragons before her, Leslie grinned and acted on her band geek impulse.

She clapped four times and screamed, "Band, TEN-HUT!"

"HUT!" The band geeks on the roller coaster – among them Scott Daily – immediately went to attention, despite being on one of the most lively roller coasters in Universal Studios.

"Let's see how long you can keep that up," the head drum major snickered.

As she predicted, all of them abandoned the attention position at the beginning of the first drop.

* * *

When the itineraries and sets of rules were passed out earlier that year, Zephyr could not see herself breaking or abusing any of the rules, especially the "no public displays of affection" rule. And yet, here she was, with Ben's arm perpetually around her waist. The flautist concluded that she would be richer than Bill Gates if she had received a nickel for every time the others in her group screamed "PDA!"

While grabbing a little dinner in Universal Studios, Ben pulled her into his lap while they were waiting for food. She protested weakly, but gave up when he rested his head on her shoulder and pressed his cheek against hers.

Leslie sat down at the table and rolled her eyes at the couple. She smiled as one of the best sarcastic comments of the year materialized in her head.

"Hey Ben!" she called. "I have two tickets to this concert next week, and since you're_ single,_ I was wondering if you would go with me?"

The two underclassmen guffawed, along with any band member in sight and within earshot.

* * *

After a long day of riding roller coasters and having as much fun a freshman could have, Charlie settled down in his sleeping bag at the foot of Max's bed. There were only two beds, and boys, for whatever reason, felt uncomfortable sharing one. Max and another senior had claimed the beds, while their other roommate dried off the bottom of the bathtub and slept there.

In the middle of the night, a bright flash woke Charlie up, and he saw that a dim, green light illuminated the area behind the television. Max had opened his eyes and wondered about the mysterious light as well.

Without thinking, Charlie spouted out, "You know, it'd be scary if the TV just said 'Bullshit!' and exploded."

* * *

Overall, Catalena enjoyed her Florida group, but Zephyr's new attachment to Ben bothered her. While trying to ignore the new couple, she spotted a lonely little clarinet player. What was his name? Scott Dennis, unanimously voted as "Most Adorable Freshman." Where was his group?

Catalena waved him over. "Hey, Scott! Where'd your group go?"

He blinked rapidly, a quirky trait of his that made him all the cuter. "Um … I dunno."

"Well, why don'tcha join up with us for a while?" she suggested.

The clarinet freshman remained with their group for the remainder of the trip and until the last day of school. It seemed that there was more to him than his appearance belied; he was quite the comedian, and was almost as random as Charlie. Upon finding a small, bejeweled replica of Cinderella Castle costing well over five thousand dollars in a remote corner of a glass store, he commented, "Those better be freaking diamonds."

* * *

The band had gathered in what could be considered the central hub of the Magic Kingdom to watch the day's firework finale. Zephyr and Ben had managed to catch up with Catalena, Chihiro, and Scott. While they waited for the Parade of Lights to reach them and the fireworks to start, they found amusement in the changing colors of Cinderella Castle.

"What color is it now, Scotty?" giggled Catalena.

"Um … blue?" he said in that quiet, whispery voice of his.

"No, it's purple," Chihiro corrected.

"Oh. Still looks blue, though," maintained Scott. "I'm a little colorblind."

"Really?" chimed in Ben.

"Yeah," Scott confirmed sheepishly. "I've never been able to see purple. It always looks like a weird shade of blue."

"Oh …" murmured Catalena. "So … what color is the castle now?"

"Um … blue?"

"No, it's purple!" Catalena chuckled. Scott smiled.

* * *

As the sun was setting on the day of the band's return, the teenagers became increasingly loopy and delusional. Zephyr had never remembered The Mummy being very humorous, yet her bus laughed at every other line. In fact, almost everyone would laugh uproariously at absolutely nothing.

When the time came to leave the bus behind and distribute the luggage, Zephyr's heart became heavy with sorrow. Those had to have been the best days of her life; she would do or give anything to relive them over and over again. However, that was not possible, and she would have to hang onto the memories for as long as she was able. As soon as the area was cleared of band members and their baggage, Zephyr turned around to grab her belongings, only to see Ben waiting for her.

"Hello there, beautiful," he greeted.

She smiled and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on hers. Maybe she had expected to come back home with a shirt, a birthday present for her brother, or a Christmas ornament, but she never dreamed of bringing home a new boyfriend.


	8. No Eating in the Band Hall

**Depends on the Cookie**

One of the most important and often broken rule of the Dieci band hall was "No eating in the band hall." Zephyr soon found loopholes in this rule, such as "no eating unless you're a band director or a judge-type person," but the rule still stood firm for the students. Seniors were no exception.

One morning, Max had brought in a bag of cookies to share with anyone who wanted them. Unfortunately, one of the French horn drill instructors, Harmon McCoy, walked past and spotted the bag.

Harmon gasped, "MAXIMILLIAN NORRIS! NO EATING IN THE BAND HALL!"

Max stopped mid-bite and glanced at the bag of cookies. He stretched out the hand with the bag towards Harmon and innocently asked, "Want some?"

"Ooh." The drill instructor seemed interested and took a step closer. "What is it?"

"Oatmeal raisin."

Harmon frowned. "Oh. … MAXIMILLIAN NORRIS, NO EATING IN THE BAND HALL!"


	9. The Interesting Band from Area

**An Unintentional Double Meaning**

Kayla sighed and reclined – now that their Area performance was over with, the band could just sit around, relax, and band geeks criticized the other bands performing, sizing up their competition. Their biggest competition was, of course, the bands from Ashford County: all of their schools participated in BOA and had made state at least fifteen times total since the first one opened.

The bassoon player didn't catch the school's name, but she did hear the announcer say, "… will be playing Vertigo. 1. Flight, 2. Dizziness, 3. Falling, and 4. Blackout."

Completely ignoring the silence around her, she giggled, "It's like getting drunk!" Leslie smirked, but leaned over to smack her.


	10. Quotes from a Ninja

**The Enigma of the Band (A/N: I'm just now finishing this off and it's halfway through my junior year. What a fail.)**

On one of the rare days they weren't practicing this year's show like mad, Mr. Radley ordered the band to play through some stand tunes during inside rehearsal, just to make sure they still sounded recognizable. Today's song was Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train. Lately, Mr. Radley had gotten into the habit of emphasizing dynamics and would start the piece over if they were not to his liking.

After two measures of Crazy Train, he abruptly stopped the band and glared at all of them like only Mr. Radley could glare. In his usual deadpan voice, he asked, "What's the point of playing Crazy Train if we don't have the vocals in at 100%?" Members who had been screaming "All aboard!" and "Ai! Ai! Ai!" from the beginning cheered as the rest of the band guffawed.

* * *

Charlie arched his eyebrow and attempted to sing what he thought was an in-tune concert A. Max didn't look like he was baffled at singing the Chorale, so the freshman assumed that alternating between singing and playing the note was a regular thing in this band program. After five minutes of alternating, Mr. Radley cut off the band and tried to get the kids to tune their instruments as they tuned their singing.

"Naturally, you can tune your voices faster than your instruments," he started. "You've had your vocal cords forever. You weren't born with an instrument to your face."

A few low brass players giggled at the image, Charlie included.

* * *

After conversing with last year's drum major, Sonia, outside, junior piccolo player Juliana Xu waltzed back indoors, only to be greeted by one of her sophomores, Zephyr. Without preamble, the underclassman announced, "Mr. Radley got a cake."

Sonia gasped. "We should steal that cake," she suggested.

"Or you know, sit at his table, demanding cake," added Juliana.

* * *

The three girls, accompanied by a senior alto saxophone by the name of Johnny Barker, succeeded in getting Mr. Radley to share his cake. Instead of just breaking off pieces to hand to the students, he insisted on slicing the cake neatly with a knife.

Since it was practically common band knowledge that the silent band director was a ninja, Juliana asked, "Why do you need a knife to cut it? Can't you karate chop it?"

"I would, but it would get all over my hand."

"Huh. This is true."

* * *

Mr. Radley sliced a small piece for Johnny and offered it to him, expecting him to receive it with a smile, like the other three band members. Instead, the alto sax shook his head and politely declined, saying, "Oh, I don't want any …"

"Don't you like carrot cake?" he asked. To Zephyr, it was difficult determining whether Mr. Radley was serious or not.

"Um, I'm fine, really …"

"Don't you like carrots?" the band director added.

Giggling, Juliana chimed in, "You're gonna fail band now, Johnny."

* * *

On Fridays during marching season, the bands usually played through the show once, then moved onto stand tunes. While transitioning between songs, Kalie stole a glance at Mr. Radley's shoes and thought they looked brand-new-out-of-the-box.

"Hey, Mr. Radley, are those new shoes?" she asked innocently.

Smiling an amused smile, he replied, "I've had these for a while."

Kevin Miller, a senior alto saxophone and the band president, elaborated, "He wears them every Tuesday and Friday!"

* * *

Catalena looked out the window at the thunder and torrential downpour and smiled. Normally, such weather would make her feel a little sad, but during marching season, such weather meant an indoor rehearsal and escaping from the unforgiving August sun.

Zephyr took one glance outside the window and simply stated, "Just watch. At precisely four, Boo-Boo will make it sunny, cloudless, and 100 degrees."

"Stop trying to ruin my moment, Zeph," the French horn player shot back.

At precisely four, the beginning of marching rehearsal, it was cloudless, blindingly sunny, and the humidity made it seem like 100 degrees. Catalena wiped some sweat from her brow, hating Zephyr for being right and hating Mr. Radley more for being a weather-controlling ninja.

* * *

For the longest time, Max had a green Christmas ornament, decorated to resemble Mr. Radley, hanging in his locker. It was well-liked and much poked by all. During band class one day, Catalena leaned down to give it its daily poke, and was horrified when it shattered. Witnesses, including Zephyr and Charlie, gasped and flipped out. The flute player even checked on Mr. Radley, just to make sure his head would not spontaneously combust.

Upon hearing the news, Max decided to hold a funeral for the ornament and created a poster that he attached to his locker, setting the funeral time to right before the game that Saturday. It was read by all, including Mr. Radley himself.

The funeral goers – including Max, Charlie, Zephyr, and Ben – arrived on time, but the door to the band hall was locked, preventing access to the remains. It remained locked until Mr. Radley arrived with the keys, and at that point, the majority of the band had shown up in the back parking lot. It wasn't until after the burial that Max realized that their beloved and much teased director was doing his best to prevent the funeral by arriving late.

* * *

Peter Notmann and Alan Reilly, two tuba players in Mr. Radley's band, nervously thumbed through their music folders, praying that one of them had the piece that the director was asking for. Neither of them did.

Mr. Radley glared at them and stated, "Tubas fail."

At that moment, Josh Andrews, a junior tenor sax, walked past him and whispered, "Epic fail."

The director corrected himself and said, _"Epic _fail."

* * *

While in the school hallways, Zephyr ran into one of her former flute friends. Seeing as how her band schedule prevented her from seeing the senior, they caught each other up on their lives. Almost immediately, the conversation turned to band.

"So we got new music folders today," Zephyr started, "and Mr. Radley actually took the time to write all of our last names and instruments on them. That was really nice of him."

"That or he has no life after marching season," the other girl retorted.

* * *

As a joke between her and Victoria, Zephyr decided to walk into the office and ask, "Hey, Mr. Radley? How would you react if I asked you if I could switch to sousaphone next season?"

He seemed to study her 4'11" figure and wimpy little flute arms before admitting, "Well, my first reaction was 'you're too small.'"


End file.
